


Competition (Tony/Bucky)

by ReginaNocis



Series: Obscure Love [17]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-24 00:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10730895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaNocis/pseuds/ReginaNocis
Summary: Tony and Bucky are fighting over Steve. When did this become his life?





	Competition (Tony/Bucky)

It took about six months for Steve to realize that maybe having the team live together in one big tower was a bad idea. In theory, it should have been great. Team-building was something Coulson continually told them they needed. Steve was pretty sure this wasn't what he meant. Tony and Bucky were in a shouting match in the sitting room while the rest of the team watched. Unfortunately, this shouting match was over Steve himself.

 

_-Two months earlier-_

 

The first four months of living in the tower were surprisingly easy. They'd found Bucky within a week after asking for Tony's help. They were meeting with Sam once a week to help Bucky adjust to gaining his memories back, and little things would set off new memories every day. Now, finally, he seemed to remember everything from their past.

Steve was in the gym for the first incident. It should be noted that Tony never willingly went down there. The lab was his space, and he actively avoided both the gym and the range, because the spies tended to try to drag him into sparring, and he hated the bruises that he always managed to accumulate from sparring with them. So Steve was understandably worried when Tony practically ran into the gym to find him.

“There you are! I need to show you something, the sooner the better!” he called with a smile. Even in his excitement, he didn't move past the doorway.

“Can it wait a few minutes while I shower and change, or is it an emergency?” Steve asked warily. Tony shook his head, looking slightly disappointed that Steve wasn't getting excited too.

“You've got time I guess. It's not an emergency, just something I think you'll like. Bruce thinks you will too, if it helps,” he replied carefully, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Steve took a second to look at him, still cautious. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Tony hadn't slept in at least twenty-four hours. He had bags under his eyes and he couldn't stop moving. He'd clearly been inhaling caffeine, which made Steve wonder what had happened to make Bruce encourage this.

“I won't be more than five minutes. And after you've shown me whatever this is, you're going to get some sleep. Okay?” Steve told him, trying not to smile. Tony actually pouted, his lower lip sticking out.

“But... science!” he protested.

“It will still be there when you wake up,” Steve promised, grabbing his shirt from where he'd left it on a chair in the corner and heading for the locker room to shower.

Five minutes later, they were in the elevator heading to the lab and Tony still couldn't stop fidgeting. He kept digging his nails into his knuckles, which was worrying. Steve grabbed his hands, smoothing them out to make sure he wasn't hurting himself. He didn't notice Tony's slight blush at the action, because the doors were opening.

“Now, what did you want to show me?” he asked. Tony lit up, practically running through the lab to the garage door.

“It took me almost a full month to track down, but I remembered you and Barnes talking about that old motorcycle you had before the serum changed you, and the look on your face every time you shared a memory that involved it in any way. So I spent a lot of time trying to find it, and I managed to find the exact one you owned back then,” Tony informed him, leading him to the back corner of the garage. “The guy didn't want to give it up when he found out it had a history, but I finally talked him into it.”

“Tony... you didn't have to do this,” Steve said quietly, staring at his old bike. It was still in perfect condition, exactly the same as the day he bought it.

“I know. I wanted to. You lost everything you had from back then when you woke up. I figure anything you can gain back is welcome, right?” he asked, smiling. Steve didn't trust himself to speak, so he just nodded.

 

~~

 

Two weeks later, Bucky pulled him aside as soon as he left his room, face completely serious. “There's something I need to talk to you about.”

Steve hadn't seen that look on his friend's face in years, so he knew that whatever it was would be very serious. He followed him all the way up to the roof, becoming more worried as time went by and Bucky stayed completely silent. He didn't speak again until he'd made sure they were alone. The roof was the one place JARVIS didn't have a visual on them. Steve wasn't even sure he could hear them up here.

“Why didn't you tell me?” Bucky asked, spinning to face him finally. His face was expressionless, which alarmed Steve.

“Tell you what?” he replied, confused.

“About all of this gay stuff being legal now! When I died, it was still illegal to love other men. I found out today that not only is it legal for two men or women to be together, but it's also legal for two them to get married!” he answered, still expressionless.

“Is that a bad thing?” Steve asked, careful to keep his own face from showing too much emotion. He'd thought Bucky had known... but then again, he'd never come out and said it, and Bucky wasn't great at picking things like that up.

“No. I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I said it was,” he replied, finally giving a small smile. “I just wish I'd known sooner, Stevie. I've always been... well, guess it's okay to say it now, right? I'm not completely straight.”

Steve would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. “All those women, though, Buck. Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course I'm sure. There were a few guys mixed in there too, not that you noticed. I was pretty good at hiding it, because I knew most people wouldn't be okay with it. I could never tell if you would be or not,” Bucky admitted.

“Since I'm not straight at all, I think I would have been fine with it,” Steve assured him, grinning at the look of complete shock on Bucky's face.

“Wait, really?” Bucky asked. Steve just nodded. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Same reason you didn't tell me,” he said with a shrug. “It doesn't matter anymore. Is that all you wanted to talk to me about? I can send you what Pepper sent to me when I first found out about it if you want.”

“Yeah... yeah I'd like that,” Bucky said quietly, getting lost in his thoughts. Steve was pretty sure he didn't even notice when he left the roof.

 

~~

 

Not even two days later, little gifts started making their way onto Steve's pillow every night. At first, he was confused by it. The box of chocolates was nice, but he wasn't sure who had given it to him. It wasn't until the small bag of cookies that he realized Bucky was the one leaving the presents. And when Steve thanked him at breakfast in front of everyone, he started receiving presents from someone else that were just waiting for him outside of his door. It took an embarrassingly long time to realize it was Tony.

 

~~

 

“You know what they're doing, right?” Bruce asked one night while they were watching a movie together. They were curled up together on the big couch, Bruce leaning into Steve's side with his arm around him. The movie was a gift from Tony, and so far it had been pretty good.

“Who are we talking about?” Steve asked, confused.

“Tony and Bucky. They're giving you these presents because they're trying to court you. It's gotten competitive. What did Bucky give you last?” Bruce replied.

“The movie we're going to watch next,” Steve admitted. Bruce was right, and Steve had only realized it for himself the night before. Each present was eerily similar. He suspected they were both getting help from JARVIS to discover what the other was doing. They were trying to be better than each other, and it gave Steve a headache.

“You should say something to them,” Bruce said quietly, resting his head on Steve's shoulder.

“I know. I will, I was just hoping they'd get over this on their own,” Steve admitted. He had no idea that it was no longer about him, but about the need to win at this point.

 

~~

 

In the end, Steve decided not to say anything at all. The gifts stopped, and it was just harmless flirting, so he figured that would eventually stop as well. It didn't. It wasn't until Tony and Bucky walked in on Steve and Bruce making out on the couch that they backed off. The conversations that followed were quite possibly the most awkward of his life.

Bucky was first, of course. Steve came back up from the gym that night to find him waiting.

“How long?” he asked quietly, not able to meet Steve's eyes.

“From the beginning, before we even moved in here with them. We got together just after the battle in Manhattan. We decided not to announce it because we didn't want to cause a fuss. I'm starting to think that was a mistake,” Steve replied.

“Why didn't you at least tell _me,_ when I started hitting on you?” Bucky asked, finally looking up at him.

“I don't know if you remember, but back in the day, you used to flirt with me all the time. You hadn't since you got your memories back, and I honestly thought you were just getting back to normal at first. After I realized what was happening, I thought it would be too awkward to bring it up. I thought if I ignored it, you'd eventually either give up or move on. I'm sorry, Bucky,” he told him. Bucky nodded, leaving him alone.

Tony caught him after breakfast the next morning. “So, I talked to Bruce already and I figure I owe you an apology. Although I still think we were all having fun with it. I'll back off now, because Bruce is probably one of the best friends I'll ever have,” he informed him. Steve had to smile.

“Probably. Thanks, Tony. But we both know that you had more fun competing with Bucky than you did trying to get my attention. Admit it,” Steve replied calmly. He didn't miss Tony's blush this time.

“Well... I mean... it was... shut up, Rogers,” Tony shot back, retreating to the elevator while Steve laughed.

 

_-present-_

 

Steve didn't even know what they were shouting about. He'd walked in for the movie night and discovered that the team was watching the argument instead of a movie. He'd been listening for a few minutes himself, and he still wasn't sure what they were actually fighting about. And then it didn't matter anymore, because they were lunging for each other, and Steve was sure they were going to have to intervene... and they were kissing.

“Okay, show's over,” he said quietly, grabbing Clint's arm and physically pulling him up off of the couch as he stared at the new couple. “Give them some privacy.”

“But we were supposed to be watching a movie!” Clint protested, frowning and not looking away from them.

“You were in here for half an hour before I got here, and you didn't even pick a movie yet. Movie night is officially over. Go back to your room with Nat and you can complain together,” Steve told him, shoving him towards the door. Nat brushed her hand across Steve's arm as she passed in reassurance. She'd make sure Clint didn't just circle back to keep watching after Steve got the room cleared. Thor left on his own, smiling to himself. Steve looked over to Bruce to find that he was already looking back with a small smile.

“Should we make them move this upstairs?” he asked quietly, but Steve shook his head.

“If they're not paying attention to us right now while we're just talking, they're not going to listen when we try to make them do things,” he reasoned.

“Well then, your floor should be empty right now, correct?” Bruce asked, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's waist. Steve smiled.

“Yeah. Shall we?” he replied, already moving them to the elevator.

“Definitely,” Bruce replied.

 


End file.
